Lessons Learned- College Admissions- If you had to do it all again.....

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Consider colleges closer to home. Especially if your kid has ANY health issues. Also going abroad for college might be cheaper but could lead to living abroad as happened to my nephew. He’s very happy. His parents not so much.

My kid is studying abroad and a second one is about to go to a different country. However, given that I moved away from the country where my parents were, I can't pass judgment. If your kid goes to UCLA that is further away that Montreal (in non-covid times). I guess I want them to be global citizens, in the lingo of the IB.

In terms of college apps, foreign universities were much easier - they were only looking at scores, which were good for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fewer safeties.
More UK institutions.
Don't bother applying to UNC when no one from your school has gotten in in 15 years
Read each school's newspaper regularly and make sure language professors and study away aren't being cut (William & Mary and Dartmouth are two examples).
Check up on the overall financial health of schools.
Do all supplemental essays, even the identity essay.

Ugh, UNC. My kid had a complete breakdown after getting deferred from UVA and denied from UNC. I tried to tell her about the in-state ratios (we're from neither NC nor VA) but she wasn't hearing any of it. It sucked to see that. She ended up getting into UVA but I wish she never applied to UNC (great, beautiful school though).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would you do differently? What advice would you give to yourself one or two years earlier? Would you have your DC take different courses? Would you and DC apply to different schools? What did you wish you knew as a parent of a sophomore/junior? Thanks in advance!

Accept the fact that your kid probably isn't going to get into an ivy league school, even when you can see that their grades/SAT/NMSF status are better than most of the kids who will be admitted.

Read Frank Bruni's book about admissions to calm yourself down.

Encourage your kid to do one interesting thing well.

If they are interested in engineering or CS, have them do side projects/summer jobs or volunteer positions in the field that they can discuss. Enter hackathons.

[Anonymous]

Love every school on the list. "Safety" means "lesser" to prestige hunters, so maybe cool it on that word.

[Anonymous]

This was my 3rd going through, and I’m vocal as to how brutal it was for us. My take-always - if they know what they want to study, do the legwork up front. Compare programs. You may be surprised by which schools you eliminate, or in our case, added and ultimately got accepted to.

Make sure your child understands the “most rigorous” box on the application and which schools (reaches) this matters to.

Visit schools early, just to get an understanding of how big a public flagship is vs SLAC. It’s expensive and time-consuming to get accepted to a mix of schools and then have to answer what you like/dislike when that could have been done early.

Which brings me to the final - set expectations that they may not know til April or later. My first too were accepted ED and know by Thanksgiving. Tons of time to celebrate, sweatshirts for everyone for Christmas, time to find roommates, and visit. And if waitlisted - ugh! Some schools allow for dorm selections once admitted, and if there isn’t enough housing, then there is so much anxiety because all the ED and EA kids get priority. We are eliminating one for this very reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Consider colleges closer to home. Especially if your kid has ANY health issues. Also going abroad for college might be cheaper but could lead to living abroad as happened to my nephew. He’s very happy. His parents not so much.

I would never keep my child close to home just for my sake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love every school on the list. "Safety" means "lesser" to prestige hunters, so maybe cool it on that word.

So important, PP.

Just finished this process with my first. DD got into all her matches, but her top 2 choices are the safeties.

With DC#2, I’m borrowing something I read on DCUM and will henceforth be referring to the safeties as “likelies” instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would you do differently? What advice would you give to yourself one or two years earlier? Would you have your DC take different courses? Would you and DC apply to different schools? What did you wish you knew as a parent of a sophomore/junior? Thanks in advance!

The college game has become the college lottery for T20 schools. I would counsel my HS student to take the classes and do the activities he/she is genuinely interested in. Let the chips fall where they may. Life's too short to spend four years of your life taking classes you're not interested in to look better for schools that you don't have a realistic chance of getting into.

[Anonymous]

More safeties on the list. Really have a good reason for applying to a reach. Write it at least draft essays over the summer. Listen to your kid and let them listen to their gut. My DD loved VCU from the very first time we visited Richmond and saw it by accident. She loved the arts/science kind of dual emphasis. Then she applied a million other places... and is now probably going to choose VCU. Sometimes (at least for her) her initial gut response was the right one. Good luck, OP

[Anonymous]

Even if you are assuming full pay, look for a safety or two where applicants get merit automatically based on good stats. At least for my kid, the merit awards provided some good news given all the deferrals and waitlists at matches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would tell my kid to apply only to early action schools that he's in the 75% or higher for all stats. 100% deferrals in that round (including from safeties) tanked months of his senior year and caused a lot of stress. For my next, if her sports recruitment doesn't work out, she'll apply to one realistic, first choice school ED and one or two real safeties either rolling or early action, then save the rest for regular decision.

As far as a year or two or out, at that point that's much that can be done as far class decisions. Your track--at least in my kids' private--is pretty much set and there's not much of a way to stray from it. My kids were locked out of most high-level courses because they weren't tracked that way from 4th grade on. I remember thinking parents who were obsessed with getting their kids into advanced classes in 4th grade were nuts. It turns out they were right.

Lastly, grades grades grades. That's what matters most. Test scores will be important again, too. But GPA, in as high level courses as possible, is what counts most. ECs are nice, but it is all about the GPA.

Can you elaborate on this? How did the private school track kids from 4th grade on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More safeties & fewer reaches/ matches on application list

x100000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would you do differently? What advice would you give to yourself one or two years earlier? Would you have your DC take different courses? Would you and DC apply to different schools? What did you wish you knew as a parent of a sophomore/junior? Thanks in advance!

The college game has become the college lottery for T20 schools. I would counsel my HS student to take the classes and do the activities he/she is genuinely interested in. Let the chips fall where they may. Life's too short to spend four years of your life taking classes you're not interested in to look better for schools that you don't have a realistic chance of getting into.

+1

So many parents are off the mark.

[Anonymous]

If you are full pay, unless you have close to perfect SATs/ACTs, avoid the big state schools entirely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would tell my kid to apply only to early action schools that he's in the 75% or higher for all stats. 100% deferrals in that round (including from safeties) tanked months of his senior year and caused a lot of stress. For my next, if her sports recruitment doesn't work out, she'll apply to one realistic, first choice school ED and one or two real safeties either rolling or early action, then save the rest for regular decision.

As far as a year or two or out, at that point that's much that can be done as far class decisions. Your track--at least in my kids' private--is pretty much set and there's not much of a way to stray from it. My kids were locked out of most high-level courses because they weren't tracked that way from 4th grade on. I remember thinking parents who were obsessed with getting their kids into advanced classes in 4th grade were nuts. It turns out they were right.

Lastly, grades grades grades. That's what matters most. Test scores will be important again, too. But GPA, in as high level courses as possible, is what counts most. ECs are nice, but it is all about the GPA.

Can you elaborate on this? How did the private school track kids from 4th grade on?

I disagree. At our "elite" (according to DCUM) public HS, 4th grade Science Olympiad does not count for beans.